Sun, sea, sand ..and disrepute (Fortune's Rocks - Anita Shreve)

Member Name: CarolineH

Product:	Fortune's Rocks - Anita Shreve
Date:	03/10/01 (67 review reads)
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For my birthday earlier this year I was lucky enough to receive a handful of book tokens. This, to me, is bliss. To be able to stand in a bookshop, browsing, with the knowledge that I can (and will) leave with a stack of books thrills me. I love reading. I love escaping to a land that may or may not be completely different from my own, to become involved in strangers' highs, lows, loves and losses, from the comfort of my bed. Or bath. Or sofa. Or anywhere really!

But I digress. Back to my birthday, standing in Waterstones, rubbing my hands in glee at their well-timed 'buy two, get one free' offer. It was the cover of 'Fortune's Rocks' which caught my eye. I'd never read anything by Anita Shreve, or even had a recommendation. Having read the blurb on the back, I thought I'd give it a go.

That was back in July. 'Fortune's Rocks' joined my ever-increasing tower of 'books to be read', until its turn came last month - and within two weeks it was completed. (That may not sound very fast to you, but with a 20 month old child and his whirling social life to contend with, there aren't many minutes left in the day for a good read, so two weeks is pretty good!)

'Fortune's Rocks' is set mainly in the American seaside town of…Fortune's Rocks. It is the summer bolthole of 15-year-old Olympia Biddeford and her mother and father in 1899. The first half of the book is dedicated to six weeks, during which Olympia embarks on an extremely physical, tumultuous, destructive affair with 42 year old John Haskell. Haskell is a well-known doctor, married, with four children, and a close associate of Olympia's father. Shreve writes in such a way that you are very quickly drawn into the lives of the characters, so that you feel you know them as if you were a character in the story yourself. The attraction between Olympia and Haskell is built up delicately at first, so that even though
you know what is going to happen, it is still extremely compelling. The meetings between Olympia and Haskell are furtive, with Olympia instigating at least as many as Haskell - in no way is she portrayed as a poor abused child.

The love between Olympia and Haskell is obviously the focus of the whole story, but at no time did I find it slushy - and believe me, I'm partial to a bit of slush! Shreve ties Olympia and her feelings closely to the environment and every day things, rather than using flowery language: "…there is no hour in which Haskell does not dominate her thoughts…the days seem more alive and arresting than any she has ever experienced before. Colors enhance themselves; music, which has before been only pleasant or difficult, now has the ability to transfix; the sea, to which she has always been drawn, takes on an epic grandeur and seems endlessly seductive…" You just know it can't last. As I read, I found myself drawn in further and further - soft romantic that I am!

The affair comes to an abrupt end during a party thrown in honour of Olympia's 16th birthday. Despite insisting that they can stay away from one another, the pair are drawn together in the old chapel of Mr Biddeford's house... Unfortunately, Zachariah Cote, a poor poet with a grudge who has guessed what is going on, catches sight of them together, and contrives Haskell's wife to 'accidentally' witness it too. This is fantastically written - I think it's my favourite moment in the whole book. Even though you are constantly waiting for the couple to be discovered, the way in which the affair is revealed is shocking and breathtaking in its speed. I won't tell you even a little bit of what happens…

Being, at this point half way through the book, the affair ended and Olympia in disgrace, I began to wonder what on earth could possibly be in the second part of the story. I soon realised there was lots
more to come. Olympia discovers she is pregnant…This, I felt, was disappointingly predictable, although it does enable the story to be moved on in another direction. The rest of the book follows Olympia over the next 5 or 6 years, as she lurches from one bad experience to another. Having had her child taken away from her, she continues to insist that she loves Haskell and does not regret her actions, much to the detriment of her once close relationship with her father. Olympia eventually decides to return to Fortune's Rocks and set up home on her own. She discovers the whereabouts of her child, and begins a battle to find him and bring him home.

I won't say anything more about the story, except that, although there are some more somewhat predictable moments, which do seem quite incongruous in the midst of such a well crafted novel, they do not detract from the book as a whole. In fact, it’s a stonking good read. It doesn't feel like a historical novel, though in a sense it is - and it makes you realise just how far we've come. Issues of race and social standing are tackled wholeheartedly, but in such a way that you don't notice until you think about it afterwards. The characters are rounded and believable, the plot is twisty-turny, but with everything tied up somewhere along the way

I would definitely recommend this book to a friend, and I shall be searching out more novels by Anita Shreve. It's not the best book I've ever read, but it's pretty darn close!

Published by Abacus, £6.99
ISBN 0-349-11276-2

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